Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Overview

It can be hard being a fan of movies and just sitting back hoping that a game will be able to do your favorite movies justice. I remember when some of the latest Rocky games came out and I was so disappointed with how the games never really capture the essence of their movie counterparts. Harry Potter fans on the other hand have actually been quite fortunate, with EA releasing wave after wave of decent and playable games. Well now the latest Potter movie is out, and right on cue, EA has come out with yet another Harry Potter, this one entitled Goblet of Fire and it is for the Sony Playstation Portable. So does this game do the movie and the series justice? Read our full review to find out!

Gameplay

So for those of you who haven’t seen the latest Harry Potter movie, Goblet of Fire, here is a little crash course in what the movie, the book, and now the game are all about. Basically this year our pal Harry’s been entered into the Triwizard Tournament, where basically Hogwarts plays the host of the event. He has to go up against some competition from neighboring schools and basically once you are entered into this tournament you’re stuck. So with all of this being said it is very obvious that Goblet of Fire that the game follows the movie down to the "t", and this is done in a pretty good fashion for those who have not seen the film yet.

For those that have played the console versions of the previous Harry Potter games, you may be in for a bit of a shock to see what the developers have chosen to do with this game. The game now, more than ever, plays like an action adventure game, in which you will play as all three of the main characters from the Harry Potter series. The action in the game is very simple and really doesn’t offer up all that revolutionary feel to the series. The levels are broken up with action and puzzles, both of which I would not consider overly difficult or overly original.

When I picked up Goblet of Fire for the PSP, I really thought the developers would try to make a new game for the PSP. Instead they actually ported the console version to the PSP, which ended up causing some problems. First off you really have no control over the camera and this can be very frustrating. Also just the feel of the game on the PSP is nowhere near as fluid as you would hope. The combat is more difficult to execute, making the port feel rushed and unrefined.

In the end you lose some of the best features of Goblet of Fire in the translation for the PSP. The controls, which were great on the consoles, struggle on the PSP, and the multiplayer features of the game unfortunately are not available on the PSP as well. Although I have been trashing this game thus far, Goblet of Fire isn’t terrible. It just is a hard transition to go from the console to the less successful PSP version. The game is playable and has some good gameplay elements. It just unfortunately isn’t on the same tier as the console version.

Graphics

The one thing that the people over at EA did do right with Goblet of Fire was they really got the visual style from the consoles hit perfectly onto the PSP. I just loved the real cinematic effects that the game had on the PSP, accentuated with a very crisp set of environments and characters. The game doesn’t suffer from any frame rate issues, and just has a very smooth and polished feel that works for the PSP. The game may not be an amazing accomplishment, but it was thing that the developers managed to do a great job of porting to the PSP.

Fun Factor

I have to say that Goblet of Fire on the consoles wasn’t an extremely exciting game. It wasn’t a bad one either, but it just was one that never really made a huge impression on me. Well when I tested out the PSP version with the added problems and the lack of multiplayer, the game obviously lost a lot of the flair that was there. This is a game that just feels like you would expect a movie game to play, with nothing more added to make it better. This game is playable and has some interesting ideas, but in the end Goblet of Fire just wasn’t as fun as the console versions.

Overall

It is hard to port a game from the consoles to a handheld device - that is obvious. But when you try and do so, there needs to be some added features to help balance out some of things you had to take out to get the game on the platform. Unfortunately the developers really didn’t do this, and thus we are left with a game that just unfortunately couldn’t match the console version.

Joel Szerlip

The owner and editor-in-chief of Darkstation.com. I've been apart of the website since 2002 and purchased the website in 2010. Owning and running Darkstation is a dream come true. I love video games and I love writing and talking about them even more.

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